GlocalNet

Often on my blog I write about religious freedom and persecution and how we build relationships with others that are opposite of us.  Many of my readers are not Christians - they are many different religions.  I’ve discovered our greatest enslaver is not the other - but usually ourselves.  We are trapped by addictions, past wounds and hurts, broken relationships, uncontrollable emotions - you name it.  Most of us have our hands full enough with ourselves without the devil and others!  Many of my readers are young pastors and church planters that want to make healthy disciples.  Many of my readers follow Jesus passionately and want to go deeper.

I don’t often blog about other books on my site - unless they’re global like Fareed Zacharias, Peter Jenkins, etc..  But this book is different - and I want to give a shout out of it: 

Think Differently Live Differently - Keys to Freedom
By Bob Hamp

The whole premise of the book is to understand who you are in Christ.  Don’t start with the sin, the problem, the issue at hand - start with your position in Christ.  The point of our standing in Christ is to get us back into the presence of Jesus on a daily basis like it was before the fall in the Garden.  Because we don’t deal with the sin in our lives, it opens doors of bondage be it from our own flesh or something evil.  Bob deals with how we deal with that evil and our flesh and walk in Christ.  Instead of focusing on a “zap” Bob deals with the hard work of holiness and following through on dealing with the junk in our lives. 

It has been the charismatic church (for my non-Christian friends - this is like Sufi’s, or mystics in other religions - more mysterious, passionate, and focus on divine revelation to individuals) that has made all of us more open to the Spirit, more open to worship, and more open to what it means to be “delivered” whether from ourselves or something evil so that we can find freedom in life and not live with burdens, guilt, shame, and destruction.  That doesn’t mean the mainline church hasn’t - but I would say the charismatic church has forced that issue.  But we have a problem, there are those in the mainline church that want to either ignore the Spirit or say the Spirit no longer works like he did in the Bible.  That’s a real problem. The problem with the charismatic church is that experience becomes the driver and sometimes leaves out God’s Word or goes beyond it - that too is dangerous.  Bob Hamp, in my opinion, has struck an incredible balance. 

There are a couple of terms I’m not a fan of - but I am a fan of the book - it would be well worth reading for yourself, and for those you are helping follow Christ - way to go Hamp -